Distribution of content, such as music, images, or text to a large audience generally includes a cost-intensive component. For example, distribution of audio content can be performed using radio or satellite broadcast. The facilities for broadcasting audio content are fairly large, complex, and capital intensive, even for low-power FM broadcasting. However, the use of radio or satellite broadcast is attractive for distribution of low-cost or free content, such as audio content, because adding an audience within a broadcast area does not create any additional costs for the broadcaster. Therefore, while broadcast of content has a low marginal cost, there is associated a high fixed cost.
Computer and information networks, such as the Internet, allow computer systems to exchange streams of data or content. Digital streaming media technologies utilize these information networks to distribute content, such as audio content, to a large audience. The use of digital streaming media is effective on a small scale because the tools, such as client computers, software, and network connection costs, have relatively low costs. The cost associated with digital streaming media involves the addition of new listeners or receivers of content to the network. Adding listeners to a digital streaming media requires additional streams of data, or bandwidth, and corresponding additional costs and resources for installing and maintaining the additional streams. For example, musicians can provide access to digital copies of their songs by a website. The more people who are interested in accessing the songs, the higher the cost of distributing the songs for the artist. Servicing multiple channels of data to multiple recipients at an increased bandwidth increases the cost for providing access that is transferred to the musicians. Digital streaming media, therefore, has a low fixed cost but a high marginal cost.
One advantage to digital streaming of content involves personalizing streams of content to a particular recipient. In the case of audio content, such streaming over a computer network is similar to the transmission of audio content by radio or satellite broadcast. The advantage, however, relates to a receiver's ability to choose the type of content he receives from a common collection of content elements available from the streaming source. In the case of audio content, the recipient can chose to receive only certain songs, only songs by a certain artist, or only songs within a certain genre, such as rock or jazz. This can be done, for example, by visiting a web site dedicated to serving a certain type of music.